Introduction

This bulletin provides the latest statistics relating to offenders who are in prison or supervised in the community in England and Wales. The statistics are presented in detail, with commentary, and with reference to longer term trends.

The bulletin covers the prison population as at 31 March 2016 and the probation caseload as at 31 December 2015, and compares them to the same time in the previous year.

This bulletin also covers prison receptions and probation starts, as the flows into these services, and releases from prison and probation terminations, as the flows out of these services. For each of these topics the bulletin reports on the quarter October to December 2015, compared to the same period in the previous year. Further coverage is also provided for these topics on an annual basis for the year January to December 2015.

Due to improvements in IT, statistics on prison receptions, releases and adjudications have changed to a new data source. As a result, this edition of the bulletin is accompanied by a statistical notice ‘Changes to offender management statistics: quarterly and annual editions’ which provides detail on the changes to the reporting of the affected statistics. Commentary in this bulletin for prison receptions and releases, unless otherwise stated, is based on the old data source. To support users in the transition to the new data source, statistics produced on both the old and new data source (for statistics from 1 January 2015 onwards) have been presented in the quarterly and annual prison receptions and releases tables. Future editions of quarterly prison receptions and releases tables will only present statistics produced from the new data source. Commentary in this bulletin for adjudications is based on the new data source and a singular table highlighting the differences between the old and new data sources has been provided in the adjudication tables.

As a result of these changes, the accompanying documentation for this bulletin has been updated. Further information about background, data definitions and measurements and data quality issues can be found in the ‘Guide to Offender Management Statistics’.

The next edition of this bulletin, covering the period January to March 2016, with prison population figures as at 30 June 2016, will be published on 28 July 2016 at 9.30am. Key Findings

- The total number of prisoners has remained relatively stable over the last twelve months to 31 March 2016 with a decrease of fewer than 250 prisoners. The composition of those on remand, sentenced and non-criminal population, however, has changed.

- The sentenced prison population continues to shift towards to a population serving longer determinate sentences. The number of prisoners serving determinate sentences of four years or more continued to increase. Prisoners serving a determinate sentence of ten years or more now account for 9% of the prison population.

- Prison receptions and releases for determinate sentences decreased across all sentence lengths over the last year. Even admissions (previously called receptions) for determinate sentences of four years or more decreased slightly over the last year, rather than slightly increasing as has been the recent trend.

- The total number of adjudication outcomes increased between 2013 and 2015. The number of proven adjudications in 2015 increased by 15% when compared to the previous year, which continues the increasing trend observed since 2013.

- The number of releases on temporary licence in 2015 fell by 26% when compared to the previous year. In 2015 there was the lowest number of temporary release failures in a year since 2002. Furthermore, the temporary release failure rate has more than halved since 2002.

- The Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) 2014 expanded licence supervision so that anyone sentenced to more than a day in prison will receive at least 12 months supervision on release. This continues to increase both the probation caseload and the number of offenders recalled to the end of December 2015.

- The total annual probation caseload stood at around 241,000 at the end of December 2015, up 11% on the end of December 2014. The court order caseload (offenders on community orders (COs) and suspended sentence order (SSOs)) rose by 2%, with the CO caseload falling 1% but the SSO caseload rising by 8% between the quarters ending December 2014 and 2015.

- A total of around 5,800 offenders were recalled to custody between October and December 2015. Almost 2,000 of these were serving a sentence of less than 12 months, which only become eligible for recall as a result of ORA and explain the entire 28% increase in licence recalls compared with the same period in 2014.

- The proportion of offenders not returned to custody by the end of December 2015, following a licence recall over the whole period 1999 to the end of December 2015, remained stable with only 6 in every 1,000 prisoners not being returned to custody. Prison population

The total number of prisoners has remained relatively stable over the last twelve months to 31 March 2016 with an overall decrease of fewer than 250 prisoners. The composition of those on remand, sentenced and the non-criminal population, however, has changed. The sentenced population has increased by 3% compared to 31 March 2015. In contrast, the remand population decreased by 15% when compared to the same point in 2015. There has been a 19% decrease in the non-criminal population, which may reflect changes in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS)-operated Immigration Removal Centre estate, including the decommissioning of detention places at Haslar Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) from April 2015 and Dover IRC from November 2015. The demographics of the overall prison population are also changing.

The ‘Story of the Prison Population 1993 to 2012’ provides an in-depth look at what happened to the prison population between 1993 and 2012 and the major factors contributing to the changes. Figure 1 presents an overview of the prison population since 1996, including the annual percentage change by quarter.

Figure 1: Quarterly prison population and annual percentage change, England and Wales, March 1996 to March 2016 Remand

Since early 2015, the remand population has steadily decreased to 10,066 prisoners as at 31 March 2016. This is consistent with the decreasing number of outstanding cases for the Crown Court (see Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly).

The number of prisoners on remand for possession of weapons continues to follow the trend from last quarter and increased by 19% compared to 31 March 2015. This may be due to changes in the volume and nature of prosecutions for knife crime or linked to the provisions in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. Under the 2015 Act, offenders aged 18 or over convicted of a second offence of possession of a blade or offensive weapon sentenced on or after 17 July 2015 now face a minimum custodial sentence of six months or four months if the offender is aged between 16 or 17.

In contrast, prisoners remanded in custody for miscellaneous crimes against society and theft offences decreased by 20% and 22% respectively compared to the same point in 2015.

Sentenced

In line with the long term trend, the sentenced population increased slightly (3%), however its composition continues to change. The number of prisoners serving sentences of less than four years decreased slightly (1%) whereas those serving determinate sentences of four years or more continued to increase, by 5% over the twelve months to 31 March 2016. Much of this is attributable to the expanding population serving an extended determinate sentence (EDS) and as at 31 March 2016, 4% of the sentenced prison population (2,689 prisoners) were serving an EDS. A small part of this increase is also due to legislative change implemented by the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 which saw a new type of determinate sentence, the Special Custodial Sentence for Certain Offenders of Particular Concern (Section 236A), introduced for the most serious violent and sexual offenders. This was made available for courts to impose from 13 April 2015 and as at 31 March 2016, 52 prisoners were serving such sentences.

Over a third (35%) of the total prison population was serving a determinate sentence of four years or more, excluding indeterminate sentences, on 31 March 2016. 7,916 prisoners, representing 9% of the total prison population, were serving determinate sentences of ten years or more, excluding EDSs, as at 31 March 2016.

The rise in the long determinate sentenced population is in line with the increasing number of sentenced sex offenders. At the end of March 2016, there were 12,240 sentenced sex offenders in the prison population, which is 10% higher than twelve months before. The number of prisoners serving immediate custodial sentences for sexual offences is now at its highest level. This is consistent with the recent ‘Crime in England and Wales’ bulletin from the Office for National Statistics that reported the highest number of sexual offences recorded by the police since 2002/03, for the year ending December 2015.

In contrast, the sentenced population for violence against the person offences remains the largest sentenced population by offence group and has increased by 3% over the last year to March 2016. Sentenced offenders for possession of weapons also showed an increase of 25% compared to the same time last year. These substantial increases can be attributed to a range of factors, including targeted police operations against knife crime in February 2015 and the same changes outlined earlier that may have led to increases in the number of prisoners on remand for the same offence group.

The number of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, which consist of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences and life sentences, was down 6% on the previous year, to 11,505. As a result of the abolition of the IPP sentence in 2012, offenders are no longer receiving these sentences and prisoners are only being released or recalled. Consequently, the decrease in the indeterminate sentenced population can be explained almost entirely by the declining IPP population. In the longer term, the IPP population has fallen by 31% from 6,017 as at the end of March 2012 to 4,133 as at the end of March 2016. Over the last twelve months alone, the IPP population has fallen by 13% from 4,756 to 4,133. The number of IPP prisoners who are post-tariff has decreased slightly in the last twelve months (down 7%), however the proportion of the population post-tariff continues to increase; 81% of IPP prisoners are now post-tariff compared to 75% this time last year.

The number of life sentenced prisoners remained stable at just under 7,400. There were 54 whole-life prisoners at the end of March 2016, with five additional life prisoners being treated in secure hospitals.

As at 31 March 2016, there were 11,145 male prisoners serving IPP and Life sentences (4,062 and 7,083 respectively), whilst there were 360 female prisoners serving IPP and Life sentences (71 and 289 respectively).

Recall to Custody

The prison population who have been recalled to custody continues to rise; by 15% over the year to 6,564 prisoners. This may be one of the reasons behind the slight increase in the sentenced prison population. A combination of factors may be driving this growth in the recalled population. The Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) 2014 expanded licence supervision so that anyone sentenced to more than a day in prison will receive at least 12 months supervision on release. These individuals are therefore eligible to be recalled to custody, whereas previously this was not the case. As at 31 March 2016, there were 620 prisoners recorded as being recalled to custody from licence as a result of ORA, which represents 9% of the total recall population. Over time, the numbers of released IPP prisoners recalled to custody has also increased slightly, which may also be a contributing factor.

Foreign National Offenders

The foreign national population held in custody and NOMS-operated IRCs remained just below 10,000 offenders; 9,971 as at 31 March 2016. This represents a decrease of 5% compared to 31 March 2015. This is due mainly to the withdrawal of Home Office commissioned places at Haslar IRC in April 2015 and Dover IRC in November 2015. The foreign national population, however, still represents just under 12% of the total prison population.

The five most common nationalities after British Nationals in prisons in England and Wales are Polish, Irish, Romanian, Jamaican and Albanian, accounting for approximately one third of the foreign national population and one in twenty of the prison population overall. Prison receptions

In this and subsequent editions of Offender Management Statistics, to aid users with the understanding of prison receptions data, the term “first reception” will be reserved for describing unique individuals that are first received into prison custody from court for a particular set of offences committed. This will give the best indication of the number of new prisoners in the reporting period. The term “admission” will be used to describe counts of individuals that either enter custody or who have a change in their custody status in the reporting period.

A prisoner’s admission type is counted as untried, convicted unsentenced, and sentenced each time they are first classified according to their custody status following a court hearing. This means that prisoners can be counted in more than one of these admission categories if their custody status changes as they progress through the Criminal Justice System in the reporting period. Due to improvements in IT systems, a new breakdown of recall admissions which count every instance a prisoner is first received into custody following a licence recall issued from a probation supervising body will be reported from 2015 onwards. Further details of the terminology and counting procedures used to report prison receptions can be found in the ‘Guide to Offender Management Statistics’ published alongside this bulletin.

Summary of annual statistics

- Over the latest year ending 31 December 2015 the overall volume of sentenced admissions remained stable at 77,240, however the length of the custodial sentences were affected in different manners.

- A 4% decrease was observed in the number of determinate sentences of less than or equal to six months. In contrast, the number of sentenced admissions of longer determinate sentences of four year or more increased by 7%. This continues the trend for decreased numbers of short determinate sentences and increased numbers of longer determinate sentences over the last five years.

- Part of the increase in sentenced admissions on to longer determinate sentences can be attributed to legislative changes in 2012 which abolished the IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection) sentence and replaced it with a new Extended Determinate Sentence (EDS).

- There were increases in the number of sentenced admissions for violence against the person (3%) and sexual offences (10%), with the number of sentenced admissions for sexual offences being at its highest level since 1990 (based on years for which figures are available). In contrast, there were large decreases in the number of sentenced admissions for robbery (14%) and theft and handling (9%) continuing the falling trend observed for these offence groups in recent years.

- The number of adult untried admissions fell by 4% when compared to the previous year in contrast to a decrease of less than 0.5% in adult sentenced admissions. However the demographic composition of the adults admitted have shown discernible trends with a continued fall in the number of admissions of younger adults aged 21 to 24 (28% decrease) and steeper rises seen in the number of admission for adults over the age of 60 (28% increase) when compared to 2011.

- Juvenile (15-17 year olds) and young adult (18-20 years olds) remand (untried or convicted unsentenced) and sentenced admissions saw a larger decline than adults over the previous year. In particular, for 18 to 20 year olds, untried admissions fell by 13% and sentenced admissions fell by 14% when compared to the previous year. The fall in sentenced admissions is largely attributable to the fall in sentenced admissions on to determinate sentences of less than 4 years. The recent pattern of steep decreases for the prison admissions in this age group has continued and also can be observed in the lower proportion of the prison population being attributed to young adults.

Summary of quarterly statistics

- A total of 23,595 offenders were received into custody as first receptions in the quarter ending December 2015 and a fall of 6% on the same quarter in the previous year.

- There was a 6% fall in untried admissions and a 4% fall in convicted unsentenced admissions when compared to the same quarter last year. The fall in the number of sentenced admissions was less pronounced with a 2% decrease. This continues the trend of decreases in all categories of admissions observed in the previous quarters.

- The decline in sentenced admissions has been driven by a fall in admissions of immediate custodial sentences across all sentence length categories when compared to the same quarter last year.

- There were moderate increases observed in the number of sentenced admissions for sexual offences (6%) and drug offences (5%) when compared to the same quarter in the previous year. This trend can also be observed in the number of individuals serving immediate custodial sentences for these offences in the prison population.

Experimental statistics: Former Members of the Armed Forces

In December 2014, the Government published a response to the review of ex-armed forces in the criminal justice system. In line with recommendation 2, NOMS have been recording whether remand and newly sentenced prisoners self-report as a member of the armed services on first reception into prison through the Basic Custody Screening Tool (BCST). Those individuals who are matched in both the BCST and appear as a first prison reception through the Prison-NOMIS system are taken forward as a cohort for these statistics. Figures presented in this publication are still in an exploratory stage and may be revised in subsequent releases according to developments in methodology and improvements in data quality.

Former members of the armed forces accounted for 756 of the matched first receptions for the period October to December 2015. This accounts for approximately 5% of offenders who responded to the question asked. Adjudications

An adjudication is a formal disciplinary process within the prison estate and applies when a prisoner is suspected of committing an offence. Once an offence has been committed, an adjudication hearing must be opened for a decision to be made before a Governor or an Independent Adjudicator (depending on the seriousness of the offence). As in criminal courts, the standard of proof that must be met before a prisoner can be found guilty is “beyond reasonable doubt”. If the charge against the prisoner is proved, the adjudicator should consider the appropriate punishment(s) taking into account the seriousness of the offence, the local punishment guidelines and any mitigation the prisoner may offer. This process will result in recording the outcome of the adjudication as proven.

As a result of improvements to IT and resultant changes in methodology, statistics on adjudications have changed. For this edition of Offender Management Statistics this means that more detailed information about adjudications are available covering the years 2010 to 2015.

The total number of adjudication outcomes increased between 2013 and 2015. Over the latest year ending 31 December 2015 the number of adjudication outcomes stood at 148,023, a rise of 16% on the number one year earlier. Of these, proven adjudications increased from 89,474 to 102,531, a rise of 15%, which continues the increasing trend observed since 2013. The total number of proven adjudications for the offence of disobedience or disrespect increased from 35,556 to 38,938 between 2014 and 2015, an increase of 10%. Similarly, the number of proven adjudications for violence increased by 10% over the same period. This is consistent with the recent ‘Safety in Custody Statistics’ bulletin that reported a sharp rise in the number of assault incidents.

In terms of punishments, additional days added stood at 13,000 at the end of 2015, an increase of 27% compared with the end of 2014. The average number of punishments per offence increased from 1.29 to 1.78 in this one year period. Prison releases

Prison releases from custodial sentences For the purposes of Offender Management Statistics, the figures described for prison releases are a specific type of release which provide the best indication of the number of prisoners that have finished serving the custodial terms of their sentence. Further details of the counting procedures used to report prison releases can be found in the ‘Guide to Offender Management Statistics’ published alongside this bulletin.

Summary of annual statistics

- In 2015, a total of 68,879 offenders were released from determinate sentences, a fall of 5% from 2014. This continues the trend of a falling number of releases observed since 2008. Much of this fall can be attributed to a falling number of prison receptions for shorter determinate sentences (less than 12 months) throughout the period.

- Further, 831 offenders were released from indeterminate sentences in 2015, which is 163 more than the number released in 2014 and up 693 from its lowest value in 2006. The longer term increases are mainly due to a rise in the number of offenders released from Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences which were introduced in 2005 and abolished in 2012.

Summary of quarterly statistics

- A total of 17,822 offenders were released from custody in the quarter ending December 2015, a fall of 4% compared with the same quarter last year. This is largely attributable to decreases in releases across all determinate sentence length bands.

- There were 131 prisoners released from an IPP sentence and a further 57 from a life sentence, which when taken together, have increased indeterminate releases by 19% compared to the same quarter last year.

- In addition, 10 indeterminate sentenced prisoners were removed under the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS) in the latest quarter. This scheme allows indeterminate sentenced foreign national prisoners, who are liable to removal from the UK, to be deported from the country on or after the date of their tariff expiry without referral to the Parole Board. The scheme began in May 2012, and there had been 348 removals in total by the end of 2015.

Home Detention Curfew

- The number of releases on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) in 2015 fell by 3% to 8,319 when compared to the number of releases in 2014. To be considered for release under HDC an offender must be serving a sentence of between 3 months and less than 4 years, and the number of offenders in the prison population serving such sentences has been slowly falling (4% decrease between December 2014 and December 2015). The transition to a new data has allowed more accurate reporting of the number of offenders recalled during the HDC period. In the new data source, of those released on HDC in 2015, 565 (7%) were recalled to custody during their HDC period by 31 March 2016. Those serving sentence lengths of 2 years to less than 4 years (50%) were the largest proportion of individuals recalled.

Release on temporary licence

Release on temporary licence (ROTL) is a mechanism that enables prisoners to participate in necessary activities, outside of the prison establishment, that directly contribute to their resettlement into the community and their development of a purposeful, law-abiding life.

- In 2015, there were 333,286 incidences of prisoners being released on temporary licence; this is a fall of 26% compared to 2014, and is the lowest number of incidences since 2003.

- This continues the trend of significantly falling numbers of incidences of ROTL since 2013, where the number of incidences recorded was at its highest level. This continuous fall can likely be attributed to remedial action to tighten ROTL processes following serious failures in 2013.

- In 2015, 6,758 individuals received ROTL, a fall of 30% when compared to the previous year. However, the average number of release incidences per individual remained at a broadly similar level with each prisoner receiving approximately 50 releases.

- Between October and December 2015, there were 79,842 incidences of ROTL from prisons in England and Wales. This is a 19% reduction since the same period in 2014; all types of licence showed decreases. The number of ROTL incidences for females increased by 7%, compared to a 21% decrease for males over the same period.

- The number of individuals given at least one instance of ROTL between October and December 2015 was 3,514, which represents a 15% decrease over the year. Of the individuals given at least one instance of ROTL, 21% were on an indeterminate sentence.

- The number of recorded temporary release failures (TRFs) between October and December 2015 was 49, which is an increase of 15 since the same quarter on the previous year. TRFs as a proportion of temporary release incidences has increased compared to October to December 2014, from 35 failures per 100,000 incidences of release to 61 in October to December 2015. The increase in the rate of failures can be attributed to the implementation of improved recording of TRFs.

- In total there were 162 TRFs in the year 2015, making this the lowest number of failures in a year since 2002. Furthermore, there were 49 failures per 100,000 incidences of release, meaning the failure rate has more than halved since 2002. Prisoner transfers

The transition to the new data source has allowed the reporting of transfers of prisoners between establishments in England and Wales. A prisoner may be transferred to another establishment for a variety of reasons including overcrowding drafts necessitated by operational needs, or a change in the prisoners’ security status which results in a movement to an alternative category prison.

The new data shows that in 2015, there were a total of 95,631 incidences of prisoner transfer, with a substantial amount (69%) being recorded as routine inter-prison transfers whilst 2,043 (2%) incidences of transfer were a result of overcrowding drafts. Further, 60,896 prisoners had at least one incidence of transfer in 2015. Probation

Transforming Rehabilitation is a reform programme that is changing the way offenders are managed in the community. Since the 1 June 2014, Probation Trusts have been replaced by the National Probation Service (NPS), which manages the most high-risk offenders across seven divisions; and 21 new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), who manage medium and low-risk offenders.

Summary of annual statistics

The total annual probation caseload (court orders and pre and post release supervision) increased by 39% between 2000 and 2008 to 243,434. Since then the probation caseload fell year on year, reaching 217,359 at the end of 2014. However, at the end of December 2015, the total caseload stood at 241,144, up 11% on the number one year earlier. This recent rise is mainly due to statutory supervision on release from prison for all offenders given custodial sentences of more than one day.

The total court order caseload (offenders on community orders (COs) and suspended sentence orders (SSOs)) fell 17% between 2010 and 2015, largely reflecting the fall in the community order. This reflects a similar trend in those starting supervision, where the number of court order starts fell by 18% between 2010 and 2015, also reflecting the fall in community orders. These falls further reflect those seen in community orders given as sentences by the courts in England and Wales over the past five years.

The number of court reports prepared by the Probation Service fell by 25% between 2010 and 2015 to 159,278. After a downward trend to the end of 2014 the number of court reports increased in the last year. The volume of court reports increased by 10% between the quarters ending December 2014 and 2015, rising from 36,159 to 39,801. In general, courts follow the sentences proposed in pre-sentence reports (PSRs), particularly where an immediate custodial sentence has been recommended. In 2015 around 81% of such proposed sentences in PSRs resulted in immediate custody.

Figure 2: Number of offenders under Probation Service supervision at end of December, 2005-2015 Summary of quarterly statistics

Looking at the most recent quarterly trends, the court order caseload rose by 2%, with the CO caseload falling by 1% but the SSO caseload rising by 8% between the quarters ending December 2014 and 2015. The increase in SSOs is likely to be related to changes under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012, which provided for custodial sentences of two years or less to be suspended where previously only custodial sentences of 12 months or less could be suspended. The number of offenders starting COs fell by 1% over this period, while starts of SSOs with requirements increased by 6%.

In addition, in the quarter ending December 2015 there were 2,904 (an increase of 35%) starts of SSOs without requirements attached. This brings the total number of stand-alone SSO starts to more than 21,000 since they were introduced under the LASPO Act 2012 (see Guide to Offender Management Statistics).

The caseload of offenders supervised before or after release from prison increased by 23% between the quarters ending December 2014 and 2015, whilst the number of pre-release supervision starts has more than doubled, rising from 10,264 to 25,109. This is due to the introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) 2014 on 1 February 2015, where all offenders given custodial sentences of more than one day are now subject to statutory supervision on release from prison. Previously only adults sentenced to over 12 months in custody and all young offenders were subject to statutory supervision.

ORA also made provision for those sentenced to under 2 years in custody to receive a period of ‘post sentence’ supervision after their licence expires to make sure they get 12 months supervision in the community. If this period is breached, the offender can be taken back to court and given a supervision default order to be served in the community or committed to prison for up to 14 days. In the quarter ending December 2015, 90 offenders were given a supervision default order and 56 were committed to prison for such a breach.

With regards to the number of requirements started under court orders, there has again been a marked rise in standalone curfews, and in standalone unpaid work given under SSOs. This may reflect the continuing impact of a mandatory punitive requirement in every court order, introduced from December 2013 under the Crime and Courts Act 2013. There have generally been falls across the other requirements, with the supervision requirement in particular being replaced by the rehabilitation requirement introduced under ORA.

Of the court orders terminated in the quarter ending December 2015, 71% of community orders were terminated successfully; they either ran their full course or were terminated early for good progress. For the supervision periods of suspended sentence orders, 71% were also terminated successfully over this period. Licence recalls

A key element of public protection is that offenders released on licence should be effectively supervised in the community and swiftly recalled to custody if they breach their licence or if their behaviour gives cause for concern. It is explained to offenders at the outset that they are liable to be recalled to custody if they breach any of the conditions of their licence. There are various reasons why offenders are recalled to custody for breaching their licence conditions besides committing a further offence. For example, an offender may be recalled if there is any deterioration in behaviour which leads NOMS to conclude that there is an increased risk of the offender committing further offences.

Summary of quarterly and annual statistics

- In the period between October and December 2015, 5,813 offenders were recalled for breaching the conditions of their licence, representing an increase of 28% compared to the same period in 2014.

- This is entirely due to the implementation of the Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) 2014, which expanded licence supervision so that anyone sentenced to more than a day in prison will receive at least 12 months supervision on release. This came into effect for those sentenced from 1 February 2015.

- Of these 5,813 licence recalls, 1,965 were for offenders serving a sentence of less than 12 months. Without these, recalls would have fallen by 15% compared with October to December 2014.

- The most common reason for offenders being recalled in this period was as a result of being charged with a further offence, with 45% of recalls between October and December 2015 having a further charge recorded as one of the reasons for recall.

- Over the whole of 2015, 21,467 offenders were recalled for breaching the conditions of their licence. This is an increase of 22% compared to 2014 which is again entirely due to the implementation of ORA. Excluding those with a sentence of under 12 months, recalls would have fallen by 7% between 2014 and 2015.

- Taking the whole of 2015, the most common reason for offenders being recalled was as a result of being charged with a further offence, with 42% of recalls having a further charge attributed as one of the reasons for their recall.

Summary of licence recall time series

Between April 1999 and December 2015, 207,941 of those released on licence were recalled to custody for breaching the conditions of their licence, e.g. failing to report to their probation officer. Of all those recalled over this period, 99.4% were returned by the end of March 2016.

Of all those released on licence and recalled to custody due to breaching the conditions of their licence between April 1999 and December 2015, there were 1,275 who had not been returned to custody by the end of March 2016. This means the proportion of prisoners not returned to custody over this period is 0.6%, which is constant compared to previous years. A further 18 offenders had not been returned to custody as of 31 March 2016 after recall between 1984 and April 1999, meaning the total number of offenders not returned to custody at the end of March 2016 was 1,293. These figures include some offenders believed to be dead or living abroad but who have not been confirmed as dead or deported.

Of the 1,293 not returned to custody by 31 March 2016, 176 had originally been serving a prison sentence for violence against the person offences and a further 42 for sexual offences. Contact points

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

Tel: 020 3334 3536

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:

**Nick Mavron** Ministry of Justice Justice Statistics Analytical Services 7th Floor 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ

General enquiries about the statistical work of the Ministry of Justice, or requests for alternative formats of this publication can be e-mailed to: statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk

General information about the official statistics system of the UK is available from: statisticsauthority.gov.uk/about-the-authority/uk-statistical-system

Ministry of Justice publishes data relating to offender management in England and Wales. Equivalent statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland can be found at: www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice www.dojni.gov.uk/index/statistics-research/stats-research-publications.htm

This publication and associated spreadsheet files of the tables contained in this document and detailed information of definitions, sources and key legislative changes are available for download at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly

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